What do you breed locusts in?

[garysumpter]

Hi all.

Looking to set up a Locust breeding tank soon.

What do you guys use? A glass aquarium? Really useful box? Other box?

I know ventillation is a biggie. Would love to see some setup photos!

Many Thanks

Gary

[garysumpter]

Anyone?

[angel_eyed_dancer]

just bumping you up the post list

[andie]

Ill put a pic up later of how im trying to breed em for ya

[garysumpter]

Please do!

Thinking MAYBE a large well ventillated really useful box would work well?

Gary

[andie]

I put a pic up here and some more info on my efforts to breed them. http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/feede...ml#post1319784

[monkeybiter]

i bred them in a ventilated chipboard box at 40'c, eating LOADS of greens but breeding prolifically. laying eggs in damp vermiculite [not ideal but sand too firm] they would wander about scratching at the floor with their rear end looking for a soft laying spot until i made a false floor with the laying pot 'sunk in' as part of the floor.

[HadesDragons]

I don't breed them anymore because I've switched over to roaches. This is what I used to use - it's still used for storing the few locusts I order in as treats.

It started out as a large storage box (about 2' tall, so plenty of height to jump around). I cut 160mm holes in the top, and covered them with fine-grade mesh:



Inside the box is fishfood, grass, watercress and a heatmat on the side. I now use egg cartons to provide perching space, but branches/hay have all worked well in the past. The grass is sat in a dog bowl with a little water in, to keep it fresher for the 24 hours between changes:

[garysumpter]

Thnaks for that, so you found them pretty easy to breed? Did you stat the heatmat? I know a lot of people suggest a hot bright heatlamp...

Gary

[HadesDragons]

Once they got going they bred pretty fast, but they takt a while to get to adult size, and need a lot more daily input (food, cleaning etc) than dubia roaches, so I switched over to them instead. I tried keeping some in 2' x 1' glass tanks set up for baby beardies (110f bask, 85 cool end, with UV) but didn't notice any difference to keeping them in the tub that they are now in. The mat isn't stat'ed - the tub is so big that I decided I didn't need one. It creates a thermal gradient from around 100f right by the mat/on the mat down to room temperature on the other side of the tub.

What are you breeding the locusts for? Unless you need locusts, it's far easier to keep and breed dubias - they are livebearing, non-cannibalistic, and need minimal input to keep going. They also have much longer breeding lifespans (12-18 months as adults), so you will get a much higher return from each one. They are sexable as adults, so you can keep a nice M:F ratio, and only feed off the males...